Construction of Buildings - Assignment Example

Task 2 a. The functional requirements of floors (Barry 114) are: i. Strength - the strengths of floors should be such that they are capable of carrying any self or imposed loads (that is, dead and live loads) coming on it. i. Stability- Floors should be capable of resisting any form of deformation to it due to loads beneath, within or under it. i. Resistance to moisture - floors should be built to prevent damages resulting from exposure to moisture and other similar weather elements. i. Durability - floors should be built to last through the design life while limiting the needs for excessive repairs to damages. i. Resistance to sound - floors should posses enough sound proof property. Resonance and echoes should be as reduced as possible. i. Resistance to fire and heat - floors should be adequately built to curtail fire spread such that building users are allowed to escape into safety during accidents. Floors should also conserve heat within the building as much as possible especially in cold areas. According to Emmitt and Gorse (84), solids floors have the usual features of floors - the hardcore (stabilized to act as the floor bed), the damp proof membrane to resist moisture, and the solid mass concrete screed. Suspended floors are different in that they somewhat looked like raised floors (as the name implies) particularly used for sloping ground terrain, clayey soils etc. (Emmitt and Gorse 91). They should not be confused with upper floors of buildings. Figure 1 below shows the drawing of timber upper floor as obtained from Barry (132). Figure1: Showing timber upper floor. b. Figure 2 below presents two drawings showing single and double laps for pitch roofs respectively in that order. In single lapping the tiles or slates (used as coverings) are placed in rows such that each piece overlaps the adjacent ones on each row. In double lapping, the pieces are placed such that at every point we have a minimum thickness of two tiles. The beauty is that it prevents the ingression of rainwater (running off one tile) into the roof via the joint in-between the next lower layer of tiles. Figure 2: Single and double laps in pitch roof cover. Source: Emmitt and Gorse (276&284) c. Figure 3 shows open and closed eaves below Figure 3: Open and closed roof eaves (flush eave also included). Source: Emmitt and Gorse (268) Task 3 a. Figure 4 below shows the material used in fixing timber and PVCu window frames in cavity walls. Note that the first (uppermost) drawing is for timber (wood) frames. The following drawings show for PVCu (area and isometric views). Figure 4: Timber and PVCu window frames for cavity wall. Source: Emmitt and Gorse (381). b. Double glazing is used to conserve fuel in providing for thermal resistance within dwelling units. The idea is to use the air trapped in-between the glass panes, being a poor heat conductor to limit the escape of heat from within the building (Emmitt and Gorse 406). In addition to conserving fuel, sound transmission is also brought to a minimal level. However, condensation generally occurs within the glass layers especially sealing is not adequate during construction. Task 4 a. For a 2-bedroom apartment, the necessary requirements are - the 2 rooms - water closets, wash hand basins, bath tubs and pipe traps for taking care of foul waste odors. Water closet, wash hand basin and pipe traps also for the extra convenience at the dinning side - one single bowl single drainer sink at the kitchen and pipe traps - pipes (preferably PVCs of adequate lengths and sizes), pipe joints (of appropriate shapes) - concrete inspection chambers (at change of direction and gradient) - concrete septic tanks and soak away pits of adequate dimensions Figure 5: Sanitary system for a 2-bedroom apartment b. System Merits: - Separation of the foul waste and water waste discharge routes and destinations allows for the proper and optimized use of the septic tank. - Maintenance needs will be promptly attended to since we have individual housing treatment units instead of a central one. System Demerit: - increased construction cost instead of using the central method. Task 5 a. Condensation is a situation where water vapor penetrates roof ceilings from within the building as a result of a gradient of vapor pressure across the ceiling (the lower pressure being at the roof end). The vapor cools and condenses within the roof (Emmitt and Gorse 300). Control can be by - providing enough ventilation or aeration (sometimes through mechanized means) to reduce vapor and the accompanying pressures. - providing enough aeration outlets within the roof space above. b. U value heat loss in buildings via the three means of heat loss - conduction, convection and radiation. According to Emmitt and Gorse (130). It is the rate at which heat is transferred through a square meter of a building material under a prevalent radiant and air temperature difference of 1 Kelvin (or 1°C) across the material. A low heat loss rate is characterized by a low U value and vice-versa for a high rate of loss. Works Cited Barry, R . The construction of buildings Vol 1, 6th Ed., Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India, 1999. Emmitt, Stephen and Gorse, Christopher. Barry’s Introduction to construction of buildings, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford, UK., 2005. Read More